Greg Diamond

The morning sun over Beach City usually felt like a warm blanket, but today, it felt like a spotlight. Greg Universe groaned, his back popping in three different places as he sat up on his makeshift bed in the back of the van. He rubbed his face, the stubble of his beard scratchy against his palms, and reached for the rearview mirror to check if he looked as tired as he felt.

He froze.

Greg blinked, rubbed his eyes, and leaned in so close his nose touched the glass. His eyes, usually a soft, dark brown, were transformed. His pupils had sharpened into distinct, vertical rhombuses—diamonds. But they weren't the pink of Rose’s or the yellow of the tyrant he’d met on Homeworld. They were a deep, vibrant lavender, shimmering with an inner light that seemed to pulse with his heartbeat.

"What the... what in the name of rock and roll?" Greg whispered, his voice cracking. He scrambled backward, his heart hammering against his ribs. He looked at his hands, expecting them to be glowing, but they looked normal—until he glanced at his right forearm.

Nested just below his elbow, embedded seamlessly into his skin, was a gemstone. It was a brilliant, multifaceted purple diamond, flush against his tan skin as if it had always been there, hidden under a lifetime of rolled-up sleeves and denim jackets.

The van door slid open with a sharp metallic rattle.

"Hey, Dad! I brought some of those—" Steven stopped mid-sentence. He wasn't alone. Standing beside him was a Pearl, but not the Pearl Greg knew. This one had skin the color of a twilight sky, her hair styled in two elegant, swooping wings, and a dress that flowed like liquid silk.

The moment Greg’s eyes met the Pearl’s, her entire demeanor shifted. Her eyes widened, shimmering with a sudden, overwhelming moisture. She didn't just look at him; she looked through him, recognizing a frequency she hadn't heard in eons.

"My Diamond," she whispered, her voice like a chime.

Before Greg could even stammer out a question, the Pearl snapped her heels together. She crossed her arms over her chest in a sharp, crisp diamond salute—the very one Greg had seen the terrifying soldiers do on Homeworld.

"You have returned," she said, her voice trembling with a mix of awe and relief. "The Purple Diamond. The Lost Radiance of the Third Quadrant. I have searched the stars for your signal."

Greg stood there, his mouth hanging open, his knees feeling like jelly. "Uh, Pearl? Other Pearl? I think there’s been a mistake. I’m just Greg. I fix vans. I... I play the guitar."

Steven was staring at his father’s arm, his own eyes wide with a mixture of confusion and protective instinct. He reached out, his fingers hovering over the purple gem on Greg’s forearm. "Dad... your arm. When did this happen?"

"I don't know, Schtu-ball! I woke up and I was... I was accessorized!" Greg’s voice rose an octave.

Steven’s face set into a look of grim determination. He grabbed Greg’s hand, his grip firm. "We need to get to the house. Now."

The Lavender Pearl didn't miss a beat, gliding effortlessly behind them as Steven practically dragged Greg across the sand. Greg tripped over his own feet twice, his mind racing faster than a warp pad. He was a Diamond? He had spent years trying to understand Rose, trying to bridge the gap between a human man and a galactic goddess, only to find out he was one of them?

They burst into the beach house, the screen door slamming against the wall. Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl were huddled around the kitchen table, discussing the latest reports of rogue gem tech in the woods. They all looked up at once.

"Garnet! Look at Dad!" Steven shouted.

The three Gems stood up, their expressions shifting from curiosity to pure, unadulterated shock. Pearl let out a strangled gasp, her hand flying to her mouth. Amethyst dropped the literal bag of glass shards she was snacking on.

Garnet stepped forward, her three eyes widening behind her shades. She reached out, gently tilting Greg’s arm to catch the light. The purple diamond flared with a soft, regal glow.

"It’s impossible," Pearl stammered, her voice shaking. "The Purple Diamond lineage was thought to be extinguished during the first era. They were the philosophers, the keepers of the deep void. When the system collapsed, the Purple Diamond vanished."

Garnet adjusted her glasses, her voice uncharacteristically hushed. "He isn't just a human, Steven. Greg is a hybrid, but of a different sort. He is the last descendant of the Purple Diamond line. It seems the gem remained dormant, passed down through generations of his family as a 'birthmark' or a quirk of biology, until his proximity to your own Diamond essence triggered its awakening."

Greg felt the room spinning. "So... I’m not just a guy who fell in love with a rock? I’m... a royal rock?"

"You are a Diamond, Greg," Garnet said solemnly. "And with that comes a power that hasn't been felt in this galaxy for thousands of years."

The Lavender Pearl stepped forward, her presence suddenly commanding. She nudged Steven aside with a gentle but firm grace. "And as a Diamond, he cannot remain in these... these rags. This environment is entirely unsuitable for a being of his magnitude."

She grabbed Greg’s hand before he could protest. Her touch was cold and precise. "My Diamond, we must depart for Homeworld immediately. Your court is in disarray. Your throne has sat empty for too long. We must prepare your attire, your palanquin, your very essence for the restoration!"

"Whoa, hey! Slow down, Lavender!" Greg yelled, but the Pearl was already pulling him toward the warp pad. "I don't even have my shoes on!"

"You will have shoes of starlight!" she proclaimed, her eyes shining with a fanatic devotion.

Steven scrambled after them. "Wait! You can't just take him! He’s my dad!"

"He is a Diamond!" the Pearl countered, her voice ringing with authority as she stepped onto the warp pad with a bewildered Greg in tow.

The light engulfed them. In a flash of white and violet, they were gone.

Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl didn't hesitate. They leaped onto the pad a second later, the beam of light whisking them away toward the stars, desperate to reclaim the man who had suddenly become the most important political figure in the universe.

But as the beach house fell silent, something shifted deep within the physical light of Steven’s own gemstone.

Deep in the subconscious void where the essence of Pink Diamond lingered—not as a person, but as a memory, a lingering echo of a consciousness that refused to truly fade—a cold, sharp resentment began to crystallize.

Pink watched through Steven’s eyes, the memory of Greg’s terrified face burned into her spectral mind. She saw the Lavender Pearl’s hands on him. She felt the way the Pearl had looked at him—with a reverence that Pink had once craved, then discarded, then missed.

Greg was hers. He was the one who had seen her, the real her. He was the one who had stayed when everyone else was a soldier or a servant. To see him being reclaimed by the very hierarchy she had died to escape—to see him being touched by another Pearl, being called 'My Diamond' by someone who didn't know the man behind the gem—it was an insult.

The jealousy was a physical weight, a dark violet stain on the pink clouds of her inner world.

*No,* the thought echoed through the silent chambers of the gem. *He is not a Diamond for you to play with. He is not yours to dress up and parade.*

The walls of Steven’s inner sanctum trembled. A flicker of pink light, jagged and angry, sparked in the darkness.

*I will not let you take him,* she vowed, the silent scream of a goddess lost in time. *I will not let anyone take him away again.*

On the surface, Steven felt a sudden, sharp pang in his chest, a flash of heat that made him gasp as the warp stream carried them toward Homeworld. He didn't know why, but for a moment, he felt like he wasn't the only one screaming for his father.