Chapter Text
The last thing she remembers is being squished by Yellow Diamond.
She's almost surprised she even reforms. She half expected to just be shattered after all of that, but the fact that she's still in one piece means maybe Blue Diamond is willing to give her another chance.
Maybe. If she begs for forgiveness, now.
As soon as she finishes forming, she drops into a bow, saluting. "I'm sorry, My Diamond! I misspoke. Of course I didn't mean any of that, I would never accuse you of — I would never accuse you!"
Silence. Did she say the wrong thing? Oh, she's not good at this. What would Yellow say?
"… My… most lustrous… Diamond?"
Slowly, she looks up.
Stares at the gems who are very much not her Diamond.
She screams.
"No, no, no, it's okay! You're safe here, we're on Earth!" says Rose Quartz, still in that weird squishy disguise.
And oh, that just makes this so much worse.
"Earth? Earth?!" The other gems pull Rose back at her shout. "Did you bring me here? Why would you bring me here?! I can't be on Earth!"
"Well, I — I didn't want to just leave you there! I thought you might be in danger, because I know the Diamonds kind of aren't very forgiving at all and you sort of made them really really mad? I'm sorry. I know you're scared, but Earth's not so bad, and I was afraid you'd be shattered!"
She looks so miserable that Zircon can't help but feel a little bad for yelling at her. Oh, stars, this is that emotional manipulation thing Rose is said to have done, isn't it?
(Why is it working?)
"R-rose—"
"Nope!" says one of the other gems, a very small Amethyst. "His name is Steven."
… What?
"What's a Steven?"
"That's my name! It's a human name, because I'm half human. I have my mom's — Rose's — gem and her powers, but none of her memories," Rose (or not Rose? Steven?) explains. "So, are you Zircon? Pearl said you're probably a Zircon."
This isn't Rose Quartz. This isn't Rose Quartz.
Suddenly, his (?) behavior during the trial makes so much more sense. The being she was assigned to defend had no involvement in the war at all. Maybe this case isn't as hopeless as she thought.
There's precedent for this, sort of. It was a very long time ago. A Citrine who had shattered three other gems before being rejuvenated… she doesn't remember all the details, but she's certain that Citrine wasn't sentenced to shattering.
Zircon summons a screen, intending to look up the details of that case, but suddenly all the gems here besides Steven are holding weapons, and—
She turns and runs.
Behind her, she hears Steven tell the others, "Wait! It was just a screen, she's not going to hurt me!"
There's a warp pad in the back. But she'd heard that Earth was cut off from the Homeworld warp network, so she can't leave the planet. She has no idea where she'd go on Earth, she could easily end up somewhere dangerous.
Somewhere more dangerous than here, amongst these known traitors? Ones who are pointing weapons at her?
There's also an ancient temple door which she dismisses immediately. That won't let her in. What about the other door, the one made of the same organic material as this strange building?
Immediately, it becomes clear that this was a mistake. She finds herself in a small room, with basins of several shapes and sizes, and no exit besides the one she came in through. She's trapped.
The door has a primitive lock. It won't actually do anything if they really want to get in, but she locks it anyway, and then curls up in the longest basin, the only one she fits inside, behind the wall of fabric.
"Zircon? That's your name, right? It's me again. Steven," Steven calls through the door. "The gems didn't mean to scare you, they thought maybe you were summoning a weapon and, you know, last time Homeworld gems were here I got taken into space! But we don't have to fight. Can I come in?"
Zircon doesn't bother answering, too focused on trying, with little success, to calm herself down.
The sides and floor of the basin seem to sap the heat from her slightly-damp form. She shudders, more out of fear than discomfort. Cold is a physical sensation that she wouldn't feel in her gem. Cold reminds her that she's not bubbled or shattered.
Yet.
Steven is innocent. She's certain of that much. But someone had to have shattered Pink Diamond, and there are at least three or four other rebel gems here. Zircon's not sure how they'll feel about a loyal Homeworld gem in their rebel base.
(She is loyal to her Diamond. Isn't she? Yes, of course she is. She didn't mean it, she's not a traitor, she was ordered to defend Rose Quartz she was only doing what her Diamond wanted please please—)
"Are you okay in there?"
No. "Yes."
"You don't sound okay. Can I come in? Please? It's just me."
Ugh. Stupid emotional manipulation tactics.
(This isn't Rose Quartz.)
No. This isn't Rose Quartz. And even if it was, she's not convinced Rose did it in the first place. Zircon gets up, making a decision.
She opens the door.
"Oh! Thank you!"
"Starlite Blue Zircon 7K3V-2CE. What happened after I was, ah, dismissed?"
Steven smiles up at her, holding out a hand. "Nice to meet you! Uh, well, Yellow Diamond poofed the other Zircon, and the Diamonds started fighting so I took your gem and escaped with Lars using Blue Diamond's palanquin…"
Which was only present because Zircon requested it oh stars she's in so much trouble—
"… and Lars was so cool, he protected everyone, but then the robonoid exploded and he, uh, kind of died…" Steven pauses.
Oh. Oh no. "The human was shattered?"
She shouldn't care. It was just a human, a disgusting organic lifeform. She shouldn't care.
(Steven is part human. Somehow. And from what little interaction she'd had with him, the Lars human seemed… more intelligent than she'd heard humans were supposed to be.)
"He's okay now! Sort of. I knew I had my mom's healing powers, but I didn't realize they extended to, uh, raising the dead… but yeah, he's magic now, and his hair is a portal that goes to my lion who I guess also died, but he isn't here right now because he went with Connie, who isn't talking to me right now apparently."
… She has no idea what half of that means, but it sounds like he can heal shattered organics? Can he heal shattered gems, too? Someone should probably look into that?
She pulls up Rose Quartz's file. It hasn't been updated since the trial.
No, Zircon hasn't had access to any updates since the trial. She's completely offline here. Because she's on Earth.
"Were you sentenced before you escaped?" she asks, instead of screaming again like she really really wants to.
"Oh, I guess not! Huh. Am I still on trial, then?"
"No. You could be retried later. If you're lucky you'll be retried later." Normal court procedure tends to go out the window when the Diamonds are involved; they could just decide to kill him instead. "They will come looking for you. And you're here on Earth! This is the worst planet you could have hidden on! This is the worst planet for me to be on!"
Steven slumps against the wall sadly. "Garnet said you might not be happy because I kind of kidnapped you. I didn't mean to. I just wanted you to be safe."
"Earth isn't safe," Zircon snaps. "I might have had a chance on Homeworld." Maybe. If her Diamond was feeling especially forgiving. "They're going to find both of us here, and I'll be labeled a traitor. Meanwhile, I'm surrounded by enemy gems on a planet that the Diamonds plan to destroy! I'm not safe here!"
Zircon paces the length of this tiny room. She… she has to go back. Yes. She has to find a way back to Homeworld. She has to prove herself, prove she's still loyal, that she can be useful…
She startles when something touches her hand. Something warm and solid and strange, very different from a gem's light projection.
"You're going to be okay," Steven says. "I guess maybe you're right about the Diamonds coming for us, but we're not your enemies. We'll fight for you."
She almost laughs, it's so absurd. Fight for her? Fight the Diamonds for her? Even the actual Rose Quartz was only known to have directly fought a Diamond once.
(Allegedly!)
And this isn't Rose Quartz.
This is Steven. And Steven is innocent.
Blue Diamond wanted to know what really happened. To that end, she might be willing to retry him. Zircon might get another chance.
She will be prepared this time.