(Somewhere far away)

  In the deep, cold darkness of space, where normally no souls should ever exist—organic souls, that is—a huge fleet of ships hovered. They should normally be on a scouting mission for new planets to be colonized.

  Each Emerald was created with perfection in mind, with the purpose of leading fleets of the Gem Empire to provide protection, to find colonies, and to help in securing newly discovered planets for colonization. Normally, each Emerald works individually; after all, matters that could bring more than one fleet together at a time are already rare to begin with.

  The Emeralds, as part of the most important Gems in the Empire, held their own pride and would naturally refuse to admit needing help from a fellow Emerald… or, that should have been the situation. But now, at one of the edges of the Empire, more than ten entire fleets have been summoned, and they all obeyed in silence. This wasn't a mission for them to complain about; it was a command, and Yellow Diamond's orders are not for them to question.

  The once-empty solar system became became one of the most heavily monitored solar systems in the Empire. Not a single vessel would enter or leave without permission. Ten Emeralds were all monitoring everything from their own motherships, each one showing nothing less of perfection.

  They all had their questions; after all, they had all thrown aside their missions to come to some unnamed solar system. They all had different expectations, since Yellow Diamond chose each Emerald from the absolute best of what the Empire had to offer.

  Protection, colonization, even exterminations—each fleet was made of nothing but veterans. The youngest Amethyst soldier in any of the fleets would not be any younger than 500 years. Each Emerald in the current system had already served beyond two thousand years, and the oldest of them had more than five thousand years of service time.

  At first glance, it may not seem impressive—after all, there are Emeralds far older—until you realize that each fleet had perfect records. No mission failures in its entire history of service. Each Emerald had enough experience and knowledge to command all ten fleets alone.

  Which brought a beautiful picture, as each fleet, in less than a day, had already started working with each other as a well-oiled machine. If anyone saw it, they would think it was one large fleet.

  In the center of the solar system was a beautiful yellow sun, close in size to Earth's own sun. The only impressive thing about the system was a double-planet phenomenon: two small planets were circling each other like twins.

  Both of the planets were covered in life, from plant life to different organisms… not that it mattered. The twin planets were chosen, and they would serve a greater purpose than housing some worthless organic life.

  Far above the planet's atmosphere, a huge yellow spaceship, shaped like a massive hand, waited.

  (Few hours later)

  "Has the injectors all been deployed?" Yellow Diamond's tone was emotionless, with a hint of impatience, as she questioned her Pearl.

  "Yes, my Diamond! Once the Diamond Essence is provided, the process can begin at once!" The yellow-colored Pearl spoke while standing beside her Diamond's throne, her arms forming a diamond-like sign to salute her Diamond.

  Pearl hesitated for a second as she glanced at her Diamond… Yellow Diamond was sitting on her throne, surrounded by four glowing screens that floated in the air, all displaying information and status.

  "My Diamond, isn't using such a huge amount of Diamond Essence a waste?" Pearl's gem went cold as she felt her Diamond's gaze turn to her. Her Diamond wasn't angry, but her light-form could swear she felt the command room becoming colder as her Diamond answered.

  "Waste?"

  Pearl stiffened, keeping her salute and perfect posture as she answered, "My Diamond, that amount of Diamond Essence is enough for many colonies to start producing, and we are always in short supply for Diamond Essence."

  Yellow Diamond glanced at her Pearl for a long moment as she answered, "Those colonies can wait. Sure, it would take a while, but there are no everlasting consequences. And beside… Blue all but jumped at the chance to help. Even I didn't expect her to send this much Diamond Essence."

  Pearl, seeing her Diamond wasn't angry at her, breathed a sigh of relief internally. "My Diamond, wouldn't helping Pink Diamond this much, behind White Diamond's knowledge, be at the very least considered inadvisable?"

  "If she has a problem with my choice, then she can shatter herself."

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  Pearl flinched at her Diamond's tone. She knew that her Diamond didn't truly mean it, but she chose to wisely stop talking. Yellow, who stopped reading the information, simply stared at the screens with an empty stare, her own Diamond flashing slightly.

  'Blue is still sad at not being able to meet Pink… Sigh. It's not that I wish to sadden her, but White and I understand that if Blue met Pink, she would simply refuse to let go. She has been restless since White met Pink, and the fact that she is the only one of us that hasn't seen her again isn't helping. Blue has missed Pink terribly… Not that any of us didn't, but we simply have better control over our emotions.'

  Yellow's mind wandered to an old memory, making her frown. They almost fractured before because of this matter. Their unity was tested heavily, and they passed… barely. It wasn't White's fault, or maybe it was… It certainly didn't matter to Blue that day. But White did it… Pink was back, and their Diamond Authority was going to be complete again, as it was always meant to be… They simply had to wait.

  Yellow was not happy about the delay, but she was willing to wait. After all, mistakes had no place—not now, not when they are so close to rectifying a mistake they made so long ago. So yes… what she was doing was a mistake, and she dragged Blue into it as well… not that Blue needed any convincing.

  She knew what the reason was for her to be this rash. Pink crying about being shattered simply enraged Yellow in a way that she almost went to Homeworld to argue about abandoning their plan and taking Pink back to Homeworld this instance. Blue would have certainly agreed. But if everything was to proceed smoothly, then they had to be limited for now.

  So yes, she has faltered, which is rather disgraceful, but she would teach those organics a good lesson about Diamonds' superiority… and while of course she would definitely not hear the end of it from White, she was going to give a little push to their youngest. Something she should have done long ago.

  Yellow Diamond rose from her throne as the screens vanished in midair, while picking up the Kryptonite that Pink gave her a while back. Yellow stared at the countless shards of Kryptonite, humming to herself in thought…

  'I have not worked with these materials before… Not that I would fail, but I do wonder about the outcome.'

  Finally making a choice, Yellow separated the Kryptonite amount between her hands. Her left hand glowed brightly as the countless shards of Kryptonite in her palm started melting and merging together until it became one big gem. At the same time, her right hand started glowing as well, but instead of merging all of the Kryptonite into a single gem, it gathered them into a hundred gems.

  Yellow's eyes glanced at the end result as her energy removed any imperfections and flaws. For a long few minutes, her energy kept working nonstop until she deemed them up to standards.

  'If they are to be a foundation for a Diamond Court, then nothing less of perfection is accepted… And since it is a gift from Blue and me, then perfection is the bare minimum.'

  Then she started walking with heavy steps, while examining the now radioactive gems in her hands, feeling the radiation coming off them, which only earned a raised eyebrow from her. 'The outcome should certainly be interesting.'

  Yellow stopped once she reached the warp pad. She spared it a single glance, seeing a dozen Bismuths still working on building it. With a snort of annoyance, she turned to her Pearl that was rushing behind her, saying, "I will plant those gems myself… Once I am done, we start the process. I expect no mistakes from any Gem, Pearl."

  Not waiting for an answer, Yellow bubbled the Kryptonite in her hands. As the bubble floated slowly, she held her left hand as the two bubbles were held above it, protected and under her watch.

  Yellow knelt to the floor of her ship, placing her empty hand as it glowed on the crystal ground, and the next second, as if the ground under her became liquid, she simply sank and fell through it.

  Yellow was free-falling down from orbit with a bored expression. 'Such a waste of time.'

  (Few minutes later)

  With a thunderous boom, Yellow Diamond landed on one of the planets, causing a small earthquake as the ground became a crater beneath her. Unbothered, she simply tore her feet from the ground as she started walking, dismissing the awe and nervousness of all the Gems working in the area.

  She spared a glance at the countless injectors already deployed and filled with Diamond Essence, simply waiting to start, as she continued her walk.

  A few minutes later, she reached her goal: a massive artificial pit that you can't see the end of. Her left hand was raised slightly as one of the bubbles floated downward, disappearing in the darkness.

  Yellow glanced at the pit for a long moment before moving back and thankfully finding the warp pad already established. She stepped on it, and the next second, a beam of light tore through the area as Yellow Diamond was warped to the second one of the twin planets.

  (30 minutes later)

  Everything was in order, and once Yellow contacted Pearl, the process started. Across the two small planets, injectors roared to life as they started injecting the land with Diamond Essence. In the middle of the two planets, the massive pits were being filled with Diamond Essence, as two motherships, each under an Emerald's watch, started sending the precious essence in amounts enough to form a river.

  One of the pits was filled with yellow-colored Diamond Essence; as visible to the eye, the plant life across the planet started to die and dry off slowly. The other planet followed the pace, but the Diamond Essence was colored blue.

  Watching from high in orbit was Yellow Diamond. Four screens were surrounding her from each side, displaying information. But she didn't need to read any of them; she was watching, and she knew her plan had succeeded, as expected of her work after all.

  The incubation has commenced, and if she were to guess, considering the amount of essence used, she was certain that they would be waking up soon enough. Now… she only had to talk White into helping… thankfully, the results of a new kind of Gems should be enough to convince her to cooperate.

  Yellow could already imagine the coming headache, so much that she almost started regretting agreeing to help. But her mind drifted to a certain Pink figure jumping happily on her shoulder like she always did, as if she never left… just as it should have been.

  So remembering the so-called Justice League causing such distress to their youngest made her annoyance disappear, as she glanced back on the planets below. She muttered with a dangerous edge to her voice:

  "You better be worth it… or I will harvest your gems myself."