Work Text:
You are Lavender Sapphire, Facet-4TT Cut-12RL, belonging to Yellow Diamond, and today is the day you meet the Carnelian that will one day shatter him.
You wait for him with your back turned, meditating until you hear his footsteps behind you. Right on time.
"I have no need of a guard," you say, not looking back, before he has a chance to announce himself. "Do as you please, until Yellow Diamond summons you back to his court."
"What," Carnelian says, deadpan. "How the fu--I mean, how did you know I was here? ...My Sapphire."
"I see the future," you say. "I know more about you than you do, Carnelian Facet-3TG Cut-12DV. Your presence is irrelevant. Do as you please."
Silence behind you, for a moment. Then, Carnelian moves and drops to a seat in front of you, relaxing. He's small, for his gem.
"You've chosen the future where you attempt to be my friend," you observe.
He stiffens for a moment, then visibly forces himself to relax. "You said to do as I please. Tell me to do something else, if you want."
You shake your head. "No, this future will do. You'll be going back to Yellow soon, anyway."
You catch the slightest glimpse of fear in his eyes behind his visor, and you smile.
----
The future is a changeable, uncertain thing, but in any reality the one to overthrow Yellow Diamond is a defective Carnelian. It's inescapable, like few futures are. When you told Yellow his fate, you relished in the tiny flash of fear you'd seen in his eyes. All the power in the world, one of the strongest beings in the universe, and yet a word from you was enough to shake his confidence, slight though it may be.
----
"Do you think there's any intelligent life out there?" Carnelian asks you, one day, picking at his teeth. "Other than us gems, I mean."
"Quartz intelligence is a concept I'm still debating," you respond, and smile at the flat look he gives you.
"You know what I mean," he grumbles, rolling onto his stomach. "What do you see in the future? Do we ever discover sentient aliens? Something cooler than livestock?"
You close your eye and Look. Countless possibilities, but... "It's unlikely," you say, patting the top of his head comfortingly.
He deflates. "Oh," he says. Shouldn't have asked, you can almost hear him think, and you sigh, frustrated.
"There is a future where we do," you admit, begrudgingly. "But it's exceedingly unlikely. I'd be very surprised to see it pass."
He perks up instantly, and it's like a weight has lifted off your chest. What?
"What do we have to do to make it happen?" he asks, excited, and you frown.
"If I give you the answer, it won't come to pass," you say, scathing, troubled. What's going on with you?
"Okay," he says, disappointed but trusting.
----
When Carnelian returns to Yellow Diamond, he will make a mistake. The time he's currently spending at your side will cause his carefully measured tongue to slip. He will call into question Yellow's authority over him, and Yellow will throw him to the ground so hard he cracks.
With the last of his strength, Carnelian will rise up and shatter Yellow Diamond, throwing Homeworld into temporary chaos. The act of rebellion will overexert Carnelian's gem, and he, too, will shatter; the perfect hero's ending.
----
"I don't want to go back," Carnelian confesses to you, the night before his summons will come.
"I can't help you," you say, voice even and steady.
"I know," he says, voice as broken as his gem will be. "I know, I just--I hate him, Sapphire, I really do. I hate everything, everyone, but you--you've been nicer to me than anyone else ever has."
No, I haven't, a voice in your head says. Your jaw clenches; you block it out.
"I just want you to know me. The real me, the things I'm afraid of," he says, hand clinging to your skirt. "Because if you don't, no one else will."
"I know you," you tell him, your heart breaking for the scared boy sobbing in your lap. "I see you, Carnelian."
----
Yellow Diamond's summon comes in the form of a note.
roof. now. bring sapphire.
----
When Carnelian returns to Yellow Diamond, you watch. You watch as Yellow fights him, seemingly for no reason at all. You see the fear driving Carnelian's reflexes as he does his best to fight back. When Carnelian offers his deadly insult, you see Yellow Diamond's blind rage and you are afraid.
You see Yellow throw Carnelian from the roof to the ground, and you are afraid.
You watch Carnelian stand, shakily, his cracked gem gleaming from his back, and you are afraid.
And then you find yourself leaping to his side, and you're not afraid anymore.
Light. Time.
You are Lavender Sapphire, and you are also Carnelian, and you are also neither of those two and something new entirely. You have no name, and you feel power the likes of which you've never felt before.
(Yellow Diamond, leaping down from the roof to shatter you both--)
It's not real. It's the future. It hasn't happened yet. That's what seeing the future is like? Crazy.
You materialize your swords from your gems, and swing them just so; you feel the timeline tear. The world around you freezes, and you run.
----
You make it to a ship, unfusing somewhere on the way, but Carnelian stays with you, laughing and crying.
"What the fuck was that?" he asks you, happier than you've ever seen him.
A mistake. A revolution. The only good decision you've ever made. "Fusion," you tell him. "We have to run. We can survive this, but only if we leave now."
"Hell fucking yeah," he laughs, helping you turn on the ship's rockets. "Hey, is this the alien timeline?"
You can't help it; you laugh. Even as the thundering sound of Yellow Diamond's footsteps approaches dangerously close, even as you set the ship's course to an unmanned colony.
"Yes," you tell him, and Carnelian grins.