LOG-133.

  I watched, silent, as a titaness stomped back and forth just beyond her throne, golden features contorted with rage.

  "Augh, I just can't believe her! Visit Pink's garden. Her garden! As if I don't already have enough to do!"

  And as I considered the Gem currently growing more and more infuriated in front of me, a terrible idea formed in my mind.

  "Indeed, my Diamond. You are very busy."

  Fingers snapped in my direction, the enormous Gem nodding.

  "Exactly! Busy! Fighting wars! Expanding the Empire! Keeping said Empire from falling apart! And she-she…urgh!"

  It was rough, watching a person tear themselves apart over what had seemed to be an attempt at reaching out from someone who cared about them.

  But the one who had reached out had also wanted to harvest every single Gem I'd ever met on the Retaliator, save for Emerald. And the one tearing herself apart had sundered the skies of Brim's home planet, enacting a genocide of the Avians.

  Those facts made me feel slightly better as I spoke, lounging against my desk and idly filling out a few minor resource requests.

  "Forgive me for any perceived impudence, my Diamond…but it doesn't seem very…fair?"

  As Yellow turned to glance at me, I internally noted how it was kind of ironic, that I was drawing upon some of my experiences in the Reef of all places for this.

  "Well-no. You're right, I suppose. I have been picking up the slack for the others…"

  After all, if there was one thing Pearls became good at while in there, it was turning other Gems against each other.

  "Evidently so, my Diamond."

  I could have said a great many things about Yellow all but carrying the Authority on her back. Most of them would be true, even, but that wasn't my place to say. So I remained silent, letting the warlord come to her own conclusions, visibly lost in thought as she was.

  "I am the military arm…and yet I am faced with questions of culture by Gems I should never see. I exist to lead our armies, and yet I am forced to take valuable time away from the battlefields of distant worlds yet to be conquered, in order to fill out datawork."

  Diamond shaped pupils turned to stare at me, as if in question, and I slowly nodded.

  "None of what you say is…necessarily wrong, your Radiance-"

  Part of me wanted to flinch as visible irritation flashed across Yellow's face, and for just a moment, I thought I'd gone too far. But then she stepped back, falling into her throne and waving a hand at me, seeming more tired than I'd ever witnessed before.

  "Stop that. I'm not stupid. You know this is wrong, and I know this is wrong, Pearl. Give me your assessment, and speak plainly. You won't be punished for it."

  Oh motherfucking jackpot.

  "Well…if you insist, my Diamond…"

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  Resisting the almost feral urge to grin at the golden bitch, I raised my hands slightly, making a helpless gesture.

  "The Authority…it was meant to function with fours in mind. Four directions. Four Courts. Four Diamonds."

  A flash at my screen drew my attention, and I silently stared at the latest request for information from one Blue Diamond as to why a blockade had been set in place around the routes leading to Pink One, and as to what a Lithoplague was.

  The prompt response Yellow (with my encouragement) had enacted, after a certain Jasper and Peridot had mysteriously (or perhaps not so mysteriously, considering the circumstances) vanished.

  Considering what I was already doing with words alone, I decided to double down. With a quick swipe of my hand, I deleted the message, erasing it from the system entirely, before turning back to a visibly waiting Yellow.

  "Apologies, our work does not wait, your Eminence."

  The words earned, paradoxically enough, both an approving nod and a scowl from the ruler.

  "Commendable work ethic, but I permit you to focus on other matters, just this once."

  Bowing my head in acceptance, I continued.

  "Of course. As I was saying, the Authority was designed with the presence of four Diamonds in mind. You, as you say, were the military arm. Blue Diamond handled matters such as culture, art and law. White Diamond oversaw the general ruling of the Empire, alongside scientific advancement and wide sweeping decisions that would affect all of Gem kind. And Pink Diamond…"

  For just a second, I hesitated, screaming internally a little as Yellow's scowl deepened, before I locked it all back down once more.

  "Well, outside of throwing balls and improving morale Authority-wide, she would have heralded an entire new frontier for the Empire! Establishing an anchor within an entire new galaxy for us to explore, and more importantly, exploit. And this system worked!"

  My annoyed mistress' voice was distinctly deadpan as she spoke.

  "But then Pink got herself shattered on her first colony."

  The massive Gem seemed to catch herself after the words had left her mouth, flinching slightly at her own apparently callous disregard, but I just nodded.

  "Pink Diamond was, indeed, unfortunately shattered. This…in my opinion, was the catalyst for which the Authority's…problems, began."

  Bracing for her next stare and feeling like I was playing more with nitroglycerin than fire, I gave another helpless shrug.

  "Our shining new frontier is dead and gone. Blue Diamond, consumed by her grief, practically shut down entirely. White Diamond hasn't been seen in thousands of years, and though I would not presume to know what our ultimate progenitor is doing…it doesn't seem to be managing the Empire."

  Adopting a soft expression, I gave my far larger counterpart a small smile.

  "Only you, in our time of need, were left standing. And you've performed admirably, taking on the duties of four Diamonds unto yourself…but the Authority was never meant to be led by just one Gem."

  Leaning back, I bowed, deep and low, briefly obscuring my view of Yellow.

  "You were left with limited resources and assets, and far too many directions in which you must stretch yourself. Even White herself acknowledges the impossibility of this, that is exactly why more Diamonds were created in the first place."

  I quirked my lip upward slightly, in something resembling a grimace.

  "Blue Diamond's grief is…understandable, but you didn't allow yourself to cease working like she did. As unfortunate as it is, in her grief, she not only denies you the assistance you need, she distracts you from the work that you're already doing, diverting you from keeping our entire civilization intact to, in her words, mend things."

  Yellow Diamond leapt forward from her seat at that, unintentionally (at least I hoped so) scaring the fucking crap out of me in the process, but thankfully not zapping me.

  "Exactly! If she wanted to truly fix our issues, she'd give me what I need and do her damned job!"

  Forcefully shaking myself out of the stillness that had overtaken me, I nodded, taking yet another risk.

  "But instead she wants to spend time talking. I am certainly not one fit to dictate such things, of course, but my education at the Reef led me to believe that Diamonds are supposed to act, your radiance."

  Sighing, I lifted a hand and brushed my hair out of my face, allowing me to stare at Yellow with both eyes.

  "But the only one I see truly fulfilling her role in that regard is you."

  The subsequent silence was stifling, and the only reason I didn't prepare to dodge a burst of energy was that, despite staring at me throughout it, the Diamond actually looked contemplative, a hard edge in her gaze.

  That edge only grew sharper and sharper as seconds turned to minutes, and then at perhaps the half hour mark, her lips curled in the beginnings of what almost could have been a snarl.

  "You're right. Stars damn it all Viridian, but you're right."

  Eyes wide, I quietly watched as the golden Gem stood up from her throne, beginning to pace back and forth, hands gesticulating as she went.

  "Pink is-gone. White is…is absent. And Blue?! She's worse than even that! She's an active hindrance! I alone am working as intended! I'm the only one doing my duty! Fulfilling my purpose."

  As Yellow took in sharp, quick inhalations of air that I knew for a fact she didn't actually need, I tilted my head, a horribly pleased sensation nestling somewhere in the back of my head.

  "The question left for you then, I suppose…is just what you intend to do about it, my Diamond?"

  A rift between beings who had known each other for longer than some species had been alive. A fracture in the seams of something that could almost be called a family. A glaring crack within a supposedly flawless Empire.

  As Yellow's fists tightened and her expression only grew more and more severe, I failed to keep the ever so slight smile off of my face.

  Truly, what an utterly wonderful opportunity that had just dropped into my lap.

  After all, how could the Diamonds look to Earth when they were too busy fighting amongst each other?