Peridot would have felt bad to say it out loud, but she had found life on earth to be getting kind of dull.
With a few more twists of her instruments, the construct fell to pieces at her feet with a satisfying crash. Little Homeworld had been perfected to the point of no longer needing her maintenance, and the other gems were able to tell the change in Peridot’s mood, how she had become more bored and dissatisfied as every day passed, and so she was put on a new project. There were still many bases and war machines left strewn throughout the world by the gems, and so she had been tasked with finding and decommissioning them. This too was something she at first felt enthused by, but over time began to feel equally samey and dull. For a thousands-year-old alien like herself, she had no idea a mere ten years could feel so long.
With the mech disassembled, Peridot took to organizing its parts and making a pile that she could then move to the nearest warp, which was a good 500 miles from where she stood. She had perfected her magnetism powers, so transporting the parts would be easy, but that didn’t mean it would be particularly fun.
“Ah, shit.” Peridot muttered, as a small component slipped from her hands and began rolling down the hill she stood on, the former site of a battle that was long over. She skidded down the incline, annoyance growing that the one component she happened to drop just had to be made of glass, immune to her powers which could easily just lift it up and stop the downward momentum. It continued traveling downwards, until finally hitting a small shrub at the edge of the forest slowly reclaiming the torn field. Peridot caught up to it, shoving it into a satchel she had brought for whatever non-metal parts she needed to move, and turned to leave, when something stopped her. A strange glint from deeper in the woods had caught her eye.
“Not another one…” Peridot sighed. While the Diamonds had kept careful records of the machines they used and where they were deployed, the Crystal Gems had been less through with anything they built on commandeered, leaving Peridot to continuously find more devices that she hadn’t been informed even needed to be found. Still, it was something to do, so she continued on toward the glimmer.
What she found gave her pause. It wasn’t on the Diamond’s records, but it certainly hadn’t been built by any gems either. It was surrounded by barbed wire fencing that had rusted to the point of uselessness, boxing in a domed building made of metal, most likely what had caught her eye. From what she’d seen on Earth television, it looked like one of those human military outposts, but she had never heard of the earth military interfering in any battles on either side.
The building was sealed by a bulky metallic door clearly needing several security checks to open, which Peridot ignored completely, prying the door open with her powers and stepping inside. Within the facility, she was shocked to find labs filled with gem tech, which had clearly been disassembled and tampered with.
“I see…” Peridot muttered to herself, looking over the notes and devices strewn about. Most likely this place had been set up specifically to look into gem tech, probably sourcing everything from the abandoned battlefield nearby. Peridot cracked a smile at the notes she found, all of which were so pathetically off-the-mark when it came to what they were trying to figure out. Her laugh was cut off, however, as she tripped over a large cable on the ground, nearly falling over.
“Stupid flashlight.” She grimaced, the thing not giving her nearly enough light. “Surely these people have a lighting system somewhere…”
She leaned against the wall, feeling her way to a switch, and finally found one, a switch so massive and heavy that she needed assistance from her powers to be able to flip it. But when she did, she could hear the humm of machinery, and saw a strange red gem in the center of the room encased in glass, which began to glow, slowly lighting up the room.
“Finally!” Peridot smiled, “Now let’s see what else they’ve tampered with…” She walked back to the nearest counter, all the while the hum seemed to grow in volume, and the gem began to glow with greater intensity. Sparks of red energy flitted here and there, coursing against the glass.
“Ugh, how did they work with all of this noise?” Peridot sighed, looking up from the counter and back at the lab’s centerpiece. And it was only then that she realized, perhaps this wasn’t what they used to light the room, as the energy around the rock grew more intense, sparks clashing against the glass, small cracks forming. The hum grew louder and louder, and the room almost seemed to shudder in response to the growing energy around this device, red lightning breaking through the glass and crashing into the surroundings.
Panicking, Peridot rushed towards the switch, only to once again trip on the large cable on the ground, sending her crashing to the ground. She moved to get back up…
Only for a strange harmonic tone to resonate from the gem. A wave of energy crashed over Peridot, and she found herself frozen to the spot, a strange tingle in her forehead, where her gem was. She felt something build up from within her, a warmth that was writing and growing and filling her up from within. Her form rippled and distorted, the light making up her body seeming to grow in density, as if she were becoming more and more solid.
But before she could try to think of a way out, or even fully comprehend what was happening to her, she poofed, her gem clattering to the ground...
---
As Peridot rested inside of her gem, more strange things began to happen to her. Her mind felt strange and wispy, and was perfectly vulnerable for the changes it began to go through. Suddenly, all of her humiliations throughout her life flashed before her, and a strange rage began to build. How could she be so weak? She needed to be better. Stronger. So that no one could ever push her around.
Her body began to reform, all the while she remained unconscious. And while her appearance was unchanged, unlike the typical gem whose body is just a construct of light, Peridot had become more solid, genuine flesh and organs underneath her green skin. There was one other major change:
Her gem had reshaped slightly, the smooth curves turning into a harsh geometrical cut, like that of a diamond.
When Peridot rose to her feet, she was still not fully awake. Instead, new desires began twisting around in her mind. The desire to be more. The desire to take revenge on those who had made fun of her. And above all else, the desire to assert her dominance and rule above all others. The Diamond Authority had been weak and inefficient. But she was smarter. And it was only a matter of time before she would overcome them in power.
Still in her fugue state, she turned to the lab equipment and began to create something new. A small choker with a triangular device in the front. One that would convert a gem in a similar way to how Peridot's body had been converted, but giving Peridot complete control over their minds and bodies, and transferring large amounts of their mass and power into herself.
After finishing her first collar, Peridot left the facility and started her trek towards her first victim, the one who would become her right hand in her new regime as Green Diamond...
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